Is It Too Late to Get a Pretty Smile After Dentures?
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I’ve been in dentures for twenty five years. I’ve never liked how my smile looked since getting them. Now, I can’t even keep them in. Is it too late for me to get something like dental implants? Will that give me a prettier smile?
Jeanette
Dear Jeanette,
It is never too late for you to get dental implants, even after you have been in dentures for many years. There is one thing that you need to be aware of, though. Hopefully before giving you removable dentures your dentist warned you about the long term consequences.
Once your teeth were removed, your body recognized that you did not have any teeth roots in your jaw anymore. Because of that, it begins to resorb the minerals in your jawbone that it used to use to help keep those roots in place. Now that you don’t need them, it tries to be as efficient as possible by resorbing those minerals in order to use them elsewhere in your body where they will be more useful.
Unfortunately, your lower dentures rest on the ridge of your jawbone. After about ten years or so of that resorption, you will no longer have enough of your jawbone left to retain your dentures. This is known as facial collapse.
This is why you are having trouble keeping your dentures in. While, as I said earlier, it is not too late for you to get dental implants, you will need an additional procedure in order to build back up the lost bone structure in your jaw. Having bone grafting done can do that. It is essential because without it there will be no way to keep your dental implants in your jaw.
After you have your bone grafting done, then you can have the implants placed. You’ll need to give it time for some healing as well as for the bone to integrate with your implants. After that is done, you can then have your dentures anchored to the implants. Once this is completed, you will find that your quality of life goes up dramatically.
Not only will you have secure dentures that do not move around in your mouth, but you will once again be able to eat anything you want. Also, because the implants are prosthetic teeth roots you will not have to worry about facial collapse ever again.
As to whether your smile can be beautiful, it can be beautiful even if you have removable dentures. The outcome of their appearance depends completely upon the cosmetic skill and artistry of the dentist doing the work. In your place, I would ask to see examples of work they have done.
This blog is brought to you by Birmingham, AL Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Thomas Dudney.
